How Do You Design A Video Game?

Designing a video game can actually be fairly simple, and does not even require a computer. The design process usually starts with figuring out what kind of play you want the game to have (puzzle, action, shooting, that kind of thing), then deciding on what perspective (first person, like Halo, or third person, like Jak and Daxter), then a tremendous amount of design can be put into how you want the levels to flow, design ideas for what the 'Boss' characters should look like (if any), figuring on how the environment will look (is it inside, or outside? Or both?, Is it in space, or on a planet? Like the real world, or some fantasy or sci-fi place?), how the play characters are going to look, how the storyline is going to run, and what will be the overall story? Determining all this is all part of the design process.

Actually, the design process is the hardest part of making a game. If the story line, game play concept, and game world aren't interesting and engaging, no amount of programming is gonna make a good game out of it. So if you want to try to design a game, start writing things down, make sketches, write the story, there's all sorts of things that need to be done before you can even try to find a programmer (or team of them) to make it into a game...

Hope that helps a little... Have a great day!